Strengthening a Hotel Brand Through Distributed Marketing
The Software Advice blog recently featured an article about what hotel brands can do to get more bookings directly rather than getting bookings from online travel agencies. With online travel agencies, hotels have to pay commissions for each booking that the agency brings in. This idea would seem like a cost containment measure for hotel brands, and cost containment is usually something that appeals to most businesses. With summer travel season getting started and hospitality and travel being one of our key industries, it is the perfect time to discuss this topic. A number of the suggestions made in the Read More
How Does Social Media Buzz Impact Sales?
This is a hot button issue amongst marketers today. AdAge reported in March that Coca-Cola announced that it found no statistically significant short term impact on sales based on social media buzz. Eventually, Wendy Clark, a senior marketer from Coca-Cola, wrote a follow up piece to the AdAge story about how important social media is in the overall marketing communication mix. This week, AdAge reported that McKinsey Company released data that indicated that one of their telecom clients suffered an 8% loss in sales based upon negative sentiment in the social media space. For that company, that 8% loss in Read More
Multichannel, Distributed Marketing Automation Still Growing
Last Fall, one of Distribion’s big marketing pieces was an infographic simply named The Rise of Distributed Marketing. 8 months later, news coming out of the multichannel marketing automation sector is still positive. Recently, Gartner released data indicating that marketing automation software will achieve 11% growth this year. Various other statistics have indicated extended periods of growth over the next 4-5 years in the category. Part of the reason why this growth is occurring is because organizations are realizing that they are at a disadvantage without using this type of technology. Many of the challenges that are commonplace in organizations Read More
MultiChannel Marketing is Not Static
Last year, Eric Jackson wrote a piece on Forbes about why Facebook might disappear in 5 years. This week, approximately one year later, he revisited that topic, and believes that the events of the past year were on track with his 2012 post and that Facebook is poised to disappear. The way Jackson uses the word “disappear” is a bit sensationalistic. He doesn’t expect Facebook to go out of business, but he is expecting that Facebook’s prominence is on pace to decline as the next 4 years transpire. While none of us can say we know exactly what will happen Read More
4 Results of Distributed Marketing in Webinars & Seminars
Webinars & seminars are a very effective means for companies to acquire, retain and cross sell. Also, they can educate agents & channel partners. Unfortunately, in industries where distributed marketing models are commonly found, webinars & seminars have not been used to their fullest potential. Distributed marketing management software is a crucial component in achieving success webinars & seminars. What are some of the end results of using the software? Results Better customer acquisition: More qualified sales leads Better retention: Keep more of your existing customers Better ability to cross-sell: Increase revenue by selling complementary products Better agent & channel Read More
Are TV & Digital Mutually Exclusive? Not at All: Why Multi-Channel, Distributed Marketing is a Good Choice
AdAge posted an article today featuring CBS CEO Les Moonves commenting why his network is a better fit for media buyers than digital media. One quote attributed to Moonves was: “If you need to reach a mass audience, you’re not going to get that online….We figured out you’d need to buy like 2 million spots on YouTube to equal one “NCIS.’” Audience fragmentation is a truism in media today. 30 years ago, the Internet was not widely available and cable was in its infancy. The legacy broadcast networks, like CBS, commanded a much larger share of the audience. In the Read More
Multi-Channel, Distributed Marketing Software a Natural Fit in Marketing to Hispanics
Two articles on Adweek’s website provided some intriguing statistics about the US Hispanic market and technology adoption. Adweek noted a Nielsen statistic that 72 percent of US Hispanics have a smartphone and watch more online video than 62 percent of white non-Hispanic Americans. They also noted an eMarketer stat that 72 percent of U.S. Hispanic Internet users will use social networking in 2014 vs. 68 percent of the total population in the U.S. The statistics on technology adoption are not tremendously surprising given basic demographics. Hispanics now comprise approximately 17 percent of the US population, as compared to 9 percent Read More
Try Before You Buy: Why a Quick Start Makes Sense
**Co-authored by Edgar Rodriguez** Why try before you buy? As a marketing strategy, offering the “try before you buy” initiative as a sales incentive makes a lot of sense. Different industries have different variations on this. Whenever you go to a store like Sam’s Club or Costco, numerous food & beverage brands partner with these retailers to allow you small samples of the product before buying it. Automakers and their dealerships allow test drives as a standard practice and certain automakers/dealership allow extended test drives. Buying a car is a costly expenditure for most people, and having this type of Read More
Is Albuquerque a Land of Multichannel Marketing Enchantment?
From April 28-May 1, Distribion will be participating in the Simpleview Summit, a gathering of many tourism marketing professionals. In preparation for the summit, today’s blog topic is related to tourism marketing. There are few places where tourism is more important than New Mexico. 32 Million people visit the state annually, which sustains 85,766 local jobs. The Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau recently announced a marketing effort to attract more visitors to New Mexico, but in particular Albuquerque, the state’s largest city. Between now & September, the ACVB will spend approximately $500,000 targeting leisure travelers from Texas, Arizona, Colorado, California Read More
What’s Going On with the Digital, Multi-Channel Marketing Budget?
A Harvard Business Review blog post recently noted that analog marketing spending (the more traditional channels) is 3 times as high as digital spending. That can be perceived as surprising and not so surprising at the same time. Gartner recently released the U.S. Digital Spending Survey, 2013, which is a terrific summarization of high level aspects of the traditional-digital blend of marketing communications. Key findings include: Marketing budgets will increase 6% in 2013. 41% of companies that have engaged in more digital marketing at the expense of traditional marketing have experienced cost savings and used that cost savings for more Read More
